


His death will be your fault

by blueeyesmakemecry (Blueeyesmakemecry)



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Hurt!Mac, Jack Dalton isn't dead here, Mac Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28802415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueeyesmakemecry/pseuds/blueeyesmakemecry
Summary: When Mac, Desi and Russ are chasing the sniper in 5x05, Mac never makes it to the alley where Desi has the man cornered.Anya Vitez has a different plan for Mac.Rewrite of 5x05, where Jack is still alive and Vitez wants revenge.
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 82





	His death will be your fault

The sniper was fast, Mac would give him that. He, Desi and Russ struggled to keep up with him. It didn’t help, of course, that he was familiar with the city and they weren’t.

But then he disappeared. He could’ve ducked into an alley on their right. Or continued to run straight.

“I’ll take the alley,” Desi said immediately, clearly thinking the same thing Mac was. He nodded and took off running again, peeking into doorways and alleys as he passed them.

But he hit a dead end after several blocks and was forced to turn onto a side street. He hoped he could catch the sniper if he tried to escape from the alley before Desi caught him.

The side street was filled with dumpsters and construction scraps. Mac eyed them warily as he passed, hoping no one was hiding behind them. But in the end, he shouldn’t have worried. The real threat came from behind him, as strong arms wrapped around his chest and a needle was shoved into his neck. Whatever drug they gave him took effect almost immediately.

He went limp in the person’s arms and he struggled to focus his eyes.

“Got him, ma’am, on my way back,” he heard a man say.

Mac couldn’t tell if he was talking through his comms, or to someone right next to them. The man threw Mac over his shoulder like a rag doll and set off toward a dark SUV waiting at the end of the street.

Mac tried to struggle out of the man’s grip, but his limbs weren’t cooperating. Whatever drug they had given him was strong and effective. It wasn’t long before he didn’t have the energy to keep his eyes open and he let them slide shut.

Mac woke to a pounding headache, every inch of his body aching. He opened his eyes to see he was suspended from the ceiling, two sets of handcuffs on each wrist. His feet barely brushed the floor and his arms ached from the pressure of holding his body weight up.

His hands were balled into fists and covered with duct tape. He tried to pull himself up anyways, close enough so he could bite at the tape around his hands, but he was too weak from the sedative they had given him.

“Don’t even bother trying.”

It was Anya Vitez. Mac glared at her.

“I modified these restraints,” she continued. “Jack told me enough about you to know simple handcuffs wouldn’t do.”

Mac knew she was right. Even he couldn’t see a way out of the restraints. He would have to talk his way out of it, or hope his team could find him.

“So is Interpol a lie? Or just a deep cover for you?”

“Oh it’s not a lie, I am one of their best agents. I just dabble in a bit of mayhem on the side. It’s fabulous money, you know. And it really helps to have the insider tips.”

“Did you actually know Jack?” Mac asked, his eyes flooding with tears at the thought of his friend being betrayed by this woman.

“Oh yes, I did. Lovely man, apart from the Kovac mission. And his inability to shut his goddamn mouth.”

Mac almost laughed. That sounded like Jack, alright.

“All that man did was run his mouth. Quite a bit about you, in fact. And Ms. Davis, of course. The Phoenix was one of his favorite topics. Now Jack will have to live knowing he’s the one who killed the man he thought of as his son.”

Mac’s mind only caught the first part of her sentence.

“Live?” He asked, his breath catching. “Jack’s alive?”

“Not for long,” she smirked. “He’ll live to watch you die. Then he’ll die a slow, painful death from dehydration and heartbreak.”

Mac’s eyes flicked around the room, hoping to catch sight of a camera. If Jack was watching, Mac could talk to him, assure him his death was not his fault. But Vitez followed his eyes and laughed.

“He can’t hear or see you right now. Only when it matters. Just know this: He’ll die thinking it was his fault you died.”

“W-why?” Mac asked, his voice cracking. “Why do you hate him so much?”

“My life could have been simple, if it weren’t for that damn task force he made. So I befriended him. Learned his secrets, made him believe he could trust me with the mission. He was a fool.”

“You’re Kovac,” Mac said, the realization suddenly hitting him. “The man Jack was looking for didn’t actually exist, did he?”

“Jack did always say you were the smart one of the pair,” Vitez said, taking several steps closer to Mac. “You’re right. But no one will ever know, because my secret will die here with you. I’ll go back to Interpol, and you’ll go back to America in a coffin.”

She stepped out of Mac’s eyesight for a moment, then reappeared carrying a laptop. She held it in front of him.

“There’s something I want you to see.” A video popped up. Tears streamed down Mac’s face as he saw Jack appear on the screen. He gasped at the dark bruises and cuts that littered Jack’s face and chest. Jack was talking to someone off screen.

“Oh no, there ain’t no way in hell I’m doing that,” Jack said, his Texas twang coming through in full force as it always did when he was upset.

“You will say it,” the off screen voice ordered.

Jack remained silent, glaring to the right of the camera. The man came into view, and Mac was horrified to see he had what appeared to be a cattle prod in his hand.

“Now, Marko, you’ve known me long enough to know hurting me ain’t gonna get me to do anything. I’m like a bull, it just makes me more mad.”

The video cut off, then Jack reappeared. Mac was grateful not to have to watch him be tortured. Jack’s scruff was longer, the room was darker. He had several new gashes and burns on his body.

This time, Jack appeared defeated. Mac didn’t know what had happened in the time between the two videos, but it had to have been bad. He listened as Jack dutifully answered all of Marko’s questions: about the Phoenix, about Mac, about their relationship. He was especially curious about Cairo, asking enough questions that Jack spat on him and spent the next several minutes hiding his pain as Marko prodded him with electricity.

As they spoke, Mac began to see what Vitez’s plan had been. Convince everyone Jack was dead, send a postcard that was supposedly from Jack to lure the Phoenix to Croatia. Then it was just a matter of leaving bread crumbs for the team to find, and pretending to be on their side long enough to find a chance to grab Mac. She’d kill him and blame all her crimes on him and Jack.

The last video looked to have been filmed several weeks after the first few. Jack’s face was gaunter, the circles under his eyes more pronounced. He looked more defeated.

Then Marko and Vitez came on screen, Vitez carrying a photo with her. Mac couldn’t see what was on it, but as soon as she flipped it over to show Jack, all the blood drained from his face.

“No, no, no,” Jack pleaded. “No, I told you, leave him out of this. That was the deal - I help you fake your death and tie up loose ends, you kill me and everyone else stays safe.”

“When have you know terrorists to keep their promises, Jack?” Vitez asked with a cruel smile. “He is every bit as clever as you said, and much more handsome than the photographs I’d seen. I wanted a piece of him and I knew I could hurt you in the process.”

Mac had a bad feeling she was talking about him.

“His death will be your fault, you know,” Vitez continued. “If you’d kept your trap shut, your boy and his friends could have stayed safe in the States. But you talked about him so much, I just had to meet him. I see why you care so much for him. It’s a real pity he’ll have to die branded a terrorist.”

Mac tuned her voice out as he focused on Jack’s face, horrified to see the anger had turned to tears. Jack rarely cried. Mac could count the number of times he’d seen the older man cry on one hand. He wished he could tell Jack it wasn’t his fault. But he was well and truly stuck. Not even he could get out of the restraints Vitez used on him.

Mac tried to fight back his tears, but it was proving difficult. He wanted to just let go, to sob all his anxiety and sorrow and fear out. But more than anything, he wanted Jack to hold him. He would have given anything for that.

Vitez snapped the laptop screen shut, and Mac jumped.

Vitez pulled something out of her pocket, and to Mac’s horror, he realized it was his Swiss Army knife.

“I thought it would be fitting to have the knife Jack gave you be the thing I use to torture you,” she said. “But first, I’d like to send Jack a little message.”

Vitez held a sheet of paper in front of Mac. In large print, she had written a script for him. Mac paled as he skimmed it quickly. She wanted him to tell Jack he blamed him for his death, that his life had been better without him in it. He knew that would shatter Jack.

“No. I’m not saying that.”

“You will, or you will pay the price.”

“Hurt me then. I’m not saying that.”

Vitez drove her first into Mac’s stomach, the impact forcing the air out of his lungs. It hurt much worse than it should have, and he didn’t realize why until he looked down to see a quickly blossoming stain on his undershirt. Blood.

When Mac looked back up at Vitez, he saw his SAK was opened to the long knife. The steel edge was coated with his blood. Looking at it made him woozy. The feeling of Vitez’s fingers tightly gripping his cheeks forced his gaze away from the knife.

“I ask you again. Say it, and I won’t hurt you anymore.”

“Until you kill me,” Mac said, his voice filled with anger. “I’m not saying it. You can’t make me.”

She gripped his cheeks harder, and a whimper he wished he could have held back escaped his mouth.

“I’d hate to ruin that pretty face,” she whispered in Mac’s ear, “but just think of Jack’s reaction if I hand delivered him your eye. Or maybe I’ll take a finger to him.”

Mac shuddered as she lightly trailed the knife under his eye. It wasn’t hard enough to draw blood, but with one slip of her hand, the knife would be in his eye.

“I love the fear in your eyes right now,” she said. “I wish I could keep it there forever.”

She froze, cocking her head as though she had heard something. A moment later, Mac heard it too. A gunshot.

Vitez darted out of the room without another word, leaving Mac bleeding and alone. He heard several more gunshots, a scream, a familiar voice demanding to know where he was. Desi.

The door burst open and Riley flew in, closely followed by Bozer.

“J-Jack, Jack, we have to find Jack,” Mac blubbered, overcome with emotion now that he knew he was safe.

“Sweetie, Jack’s dead,” Riley said softly, pressing her palm softly to his cheek.

Bozer was searching the room for keys or something to rip the tape with.

“No, no it was fake, she showed me a video. He’s alive. She wanted him alive to see me die so he’d think it was his fault and then she was gonna kill him,” Mac said, stumbling slightly over his words.

He could tell Riley didn’t believe him, so he nudged her gently over to the computer with his leg.

“The video is there, watch it,” Mac said.

Riley searched through the computer for several minutes.

“Mac...there’s nothing here.”

“N-no, no, there has to be. I saw him, I know I did. He was alive, they made him set this up to trap us and make him suffer. It’s real, Ri, I swear it’s real.”

Mac was sobbing at this point, tears coming down so hard and fast he could barely speak. He heard Riley and Bozer talking in quiet voices, and the loud calls from Desi and Russ as they cleared the building.

They had just gotten the last cuff unlocked and lowered him gently to the ground when he heard it. A voice he never thought he’d hear again.

“Where is he? Where’s Mac, is he OK? Were you too late? I’m going to kill them if they hurt him.”

Mac stumbled to his feet and ran toward the door. He needed to see him to believe it was real. Then the door flew open and a man stood in front of him. He was skinnier, his hair longer, but it was unmistakably Jack.

“J-Jack,” Mac breathed. Jack pulled him into a tight hug and Mac gripped his soft, worn T-shirt in his fists as he sobbed into Jack’s neck. He could feel something wet in his hair and realized Jack was crying too. “Oh, Mac, baby, I’m so glad you’re safe,” Jack said, his voice breaking slightly. “And Ri, Boze, come here. Join the hug. My kids. I love you so much.”

“I missed you so much, Jack,” Riley cried, latching onto him and Mac.

Mac melted into their grip, finally feeling safe surrounded by his family. It had been more than two years since he’d seen Jack, since their family had been torn apart by Kovac. But now they were back together.

Everyone was safe, the real Kovac would be going to prison for the rest of her life.

And Mac had his family back.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm devastated they killed Jack in canon Macgyver, but he'll never be dead in my fanfics.


End file.
